The Alhambra 40
Here the kind-hearted old woman could not restrain her tears.
“Perhaps, mother, you could manage to procure us a sight of these
cavaliers,” said Zayda.
“I think,” said Zorayda, “a little music would be quite reviving.”
The timid Zorahayda said nothing, but threw her arms round the neck of
Kadiga.
“Mercy on me!” exclaimed the discreet old woman; “what are you talking
of, my children? Your father would be the death of us all if he heard of
such a thing. To be sure, these cavaliers are evidently well-bred, and
high-minded youths; but what of that? they are the enemies of our faith,
and you must not even think of them but with abhorrence.”
There is an admirable intrepidity in the female will, particularly when
about the marriageable age, which is not to be deterred by dangers and
prohibitions. The princesses hung round their old duenna, and coaxed,
and entreated, and declared that a refusal would break their hearts.
What could she do? She was certainly the most discreet old woman in the
whole world, and one of the most faithful servants to the king; but was
she to see three beautiful princesses break their hearts for the mere
tinkling of a guitar? Besides, though she had been so long among the
Moors, and changed her faith in imitation of her mistress, like a trusty
follower, yet she was a Spaniard born, and had the lingerings of
Christianity in her heart. So she set about to contrive how the wish of
the princesses might be gratified.
The Christian captives, confined in the Vermilion Towers, were under the
charge of a big-whiskered, broad-shouldered renegado, called Hussein
Baba, who was reputed to have a most itching palm. She went to him
privately, and slipping a broad piece of gold into his hand, “Hussein
Baba,” said she; “my mistresses the three princesses, who are shut up in
the tower, and in sad want of amusement, have heard of the musical
talents of the three Spanish cavaliers, and are desirous of hearing a
specimen of their skill. I am sure you are too kind-hearted to refuse
them so innocent a gratification.”
“What! and to have my head set grinning over the gate of my own tower!
for that would be the reward, if the king should discover it.”
“No danger of anything of the kind; the affair may be managed so that
the whim of the princesses may be gratified, and their father be never
the wiser. You know the deep ravine outside of the walls which passes
immediately below the tower. Put the three Christians to work there, and
at the intervals of their labor, let them play and sing, as if for their
own recreation. In this way the princesses will be able to hear them
from the windows of the tower, and you may be sure of their paying well
for your compliance.”
As the good old woman concluded her harangue, she kindly pressed the
rough hand of the renegado, and left within it another piece of gold.
Her eloquence was irresistible. The very next day the three cavaliers
were put to work in the ravine. During the noontide heat, when their
fellow-laborers were sleeping in the shade, and the guard nodding
drowsily at his post, they seated themselves among the herbage at the
foot of the tower, and sang a Spanish roundelay to the accompaniment of
the guitar.
The glen was deep, the tower was high, but their voices rose distinctly
in the stillness of the summer noon. The princesses listened from their
balcony, they had been taught the Spanish language by their duenna, and
were moved by the tenderness of the song. The discreet Kadiga, on the
contrary, was terribly shocked. “Allah preserve us!” cried she, “they
are singing a love-ditty, addressed to yourselves. Did ever mortal hear
of such audacity? I will run to the slave-master, and have them soundly
bastinadoed.”
“What! bastinado such gallant cavaliers, and for singing so charmingly!”
The three beautiful princesses were filled with horror at the idea. With
all her virtuous indignation, the good old woman was of a placable
nature, and easily appeased. Besides, the music seemed to have a
beneficial effect upon her young mistresses. A rosy bloom had already
come to their cheeks, and their eyes began to sparkle. She made no
further objection, therefore, to the amorous ditty of the cavaliers.
When it was finished, the princesses remained silent for a time; at
length Zorayda took up a lute, and with a sweet, though faint and
trembling voice, warbled a little Arabian air, the burden of which was,
“The rose is concealed among her leaves, but she listens with delight to
the song of the nightingale.”
From this time forward the cavaliers worked almost daily in the ravine.
The considerate Hussein Baba became more and more indulgent, and daily
more prone to sleep at his post. For some time a vague intercourse was
kept up by popular songs and romances, which in some measure responded
to each other, and breathed the feelings of the parties. By degrees the
princesses showed themselves at the balcony, when they could do so
without being perceived by the guards. They conversed with the cavaliers
also, by means of flowers, with the symbolical language of which they
were mutually acquainted; the difficulties of their intercourse added to
its charms, and strengthened the passion they had so singularly
conceived; for love delights to struggle with difficulties, and thrives
the most hardily on the scantiest soil.
The change effected in the looks and spirits of the princesses by this
secret intercourse, surprised and gratified the left-handed king; but no
one was more elated than the discreet Kadiga, who considered it all
owing to her able management.
At length there was an interruption in this telegraphic correspondence:
for several days the cavaliers ceased to make their appearance in the
glen. The princesses looked out from the tower in vain. In vain they
stretched their swan-like necks from the balcony; in vain they sang like
captive nightingales in their cage: nothing was to be seen of their
Christian lovers; not a note responded from the groves. The discreet
Kadiga sallied forth in quest of intelligence, and soon returned with a
face full of trouble. “Ah, my children!” cried she, “I saw what all this
would come to, but you would have your way; you may now hang up your
lutes on the willows. The Spanish cavaliers are ransomed by their
families; they are down in Granada, and preparing to return to their
native country.”
The three beautiful princesses were in despair at the tidings. Zayda was
indignant at the slight put upon them, in thus being deserted without a
parting word. Zorayda wrung her hands and cried, and looked in the
glass, and wiped away her tears, and cried afresh. The gentle Zorahayda
leaned over the balcony and wept in silence, and her tears fell drop by
drop among the flowers of the bank where the faithless cavaliers had so
often been seated.
The discreet Kadiga did all in her power to soothe their sorrow. “Take
comfort, my children,” said she, “this is nothing when you are used to
it. This is the way of the world. Ah! when you are as old as I am, you
will know how to value these men. I’ll warrant these cavaliers have
their loves among the Spanish beauties of Cordova and Seville, and will
soon be serenading under their balconies, and thinking no more of the
Moorish beauties in the Alhambra. Take comfort, therefore, my children,
and drive them from your hearts.”
The comforting words of the discreet Kadiga only redoubled the distress
of the three princesses, and for two days they continued inconsolable.
On the morning of the third the good old woman entered their apartment,
all ruffling with indignation.
“Who would have believed such insolence in mortal man!” exclaimed she,
as soon as she could find words to express herself; “but I am rightly
served for having connived at this deception of your worthy father.
Never talk more to me of your Spanish cavaliers.”
“Why, what has happened, good Kadiga?” exclaimed the princesses in
breathless anxiety.
“What has happened?--treason has happened! or, what is almost as bad,
treason has been proposed; and to me, the most faithful of subjects, the
trustiest of duennas! Yes, my children, the Spanish cavaliers have dared
to tamper with me, that I should persuade you to fly with them to
Cordova, and become their wives!”
Here the excellent old woman covered her face with her hands, and gave
way to a violent burst of grief and indignation. The three beautiful
princesses turned pale and red, pale and red, and trembled, and looked
down, and cast shy looks at each other, but said nothing. Meantime the
old woman sat rocking backward and forward in violent agitation, and now
and then breaking out into exclamations,--“That ever I should live to be
so insulted!--I, the most faithful of servants!”
At length the eldest princess, who had most spirit and always took the
lead, approached her and laying her hand upon her shoulder, “Well,
mother,” said she, “supposing we were willing to fly with these
Christian cavaliers--is such a thing possible?”
The good old woman paused suddenly in her grief, and looking up,
“Possible,” echoed she; “to be sure it is possible. Have not the
cavaliers already bribed Hussein Baba, the renegado captain of the
guard, and arranged the whole plan? But, then, to think of deceiving
your father! your father, who has placed such confidence in me!” Here
the worthy woman gave way to a fresh burst of grief, and began again to
rock backward and forward, and to wring her hands.
“But our father has never placed any confidence in us,” said the eldest
princess, “but has trusted to bolts and bars, and treated us as
captives.”
“Why, that is true enough,” replied the old woman, again pausing in her
grief; “he has indeed treated you most unreasonably, keeping you shut up
here, to waste your bloom in a moping old tower, like roses left to
wither in a flower-jar. But, then, to fly from your native land!”
“And is not the land we fly to the native land of our mother, where we
shall live in freedom? And shall we not each have a youthful husband in
exchange for a severe old father?”
“Why, that again is all very true; and your father, I must confess, is
rather tyrannical; but what then,” relapsing into her grief, “would you
leave me behind to bear the brunt of his vengeance?”
“By no means, my good Kadiga; cannot you fly with us?”
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